Spring 2024 Syllabus - The Data Mine Seminar

There are officially 4 Monday class times: 8:30 am, 9:30 am, 10:30 am (all in the Hillenbrand Dining Court atrium—​no meal swipe required), and 4:30 pm (synchronous online, recorded and posted later). All the information you need to work on the projects each week will be provided online on the Thursday of the previous week, and we encourage you to get a head start on the projects before class time. Dr. Ward does not lecture during the class meetings, but this is a good time to ask questions and get help from Dr. Ward, the T.A.s, and your classmates. Attendance is not required. The T.A.s will have many daytime and evening office hours throughout the week.

The Data Mine is a supportive environment for students in any major from any background who want to learn some data science skills. Students will have hands-on experience with computational tools for representing, extracting, manipulating, interpreting, transforming, and visualizing data, especially big data sets, and in effectively communicating insights about data. Topics include: the R environment, Python, visualizing data, UNIX, bash, regular expressions, SQL, XML and scraping data from the internet, as well as selected advanced topics, as time permits.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

While everything we are doing in The Data Mine this semester can be done online, rather than in person, and no part of your seminar grade comes from attendance, we want to remind you of general campus attendance policies during COVID-19. Students should stay home and contact the Protect Purdue Health Center (496-INFO) if they feel ill, have any symptoms associated with COVID-19, or suspect they have been exposed to the virus. In the current context of COVID-19, in-person attendance will not be a factor in the final grades, but the student still needs to inform the instructor of any conflict that can be anticipated and will affect the submission of an assignment. Only the instructor can excuse a student from a course requirement or responsibility. When conflicts can be anticipated, such as for many University-sponsored activities and religious observations, the student should inform the instructor of the situation as far in advance as possible. For unanticipated or emergency conflict, when advance notification to an instructor is not possible, the student should contact the instructor as soon as possible by email or by phone. When the student is unable to make direct contact with the instructor and is unable to leave word with the instructor’s department because of circumstances beyond the student’s control, and in cases of bereavement, quarantine, or isolation, the student or the student’s representative should contact the Office of the Dean of Students via email or phone at 765-494-1747. Below are links on Attendance and Grief Absence policies under the University Policies menu.

For the purposes of getting help with this 1-credit seminar class, your most important people are:

The office hours schedule is posted here.

Office hours are held in person in Hillenbrand lobby and on Zoom. Check the schedule to see the available schedule.

Piazza is an online discussion board where students can post questions at any time, and Data Mine staff or T.A.s will respond. Piazza is available through Brightspace. There are private and public postings. Last year we had over 11,000 interactions on Piazza, and the typical response time was around 5-10 minutes.

Click here to view the Spring 2024 Course Schedule

See the schedule and later parts of the syllabus for more details, but here is an overview of how the course works:

In the first week of the beginning of the semester, you will have some "housekeeping" tasks to do, which include taking the Syllabus quiz and Academic Integrity quiz.

Generally, every week from the very beginning of the semester, you will have your new projects released on a Thursday, and they are due 8 days later on the Friday at 11:55 pm Purdue West Lafayette (Eastern) time. You will need to do 3 Outside Event reflections.

We will have 14 weekly projects available, but we only count your best 10. This means you could miss up to 4 projects due to illness or other reasons, and it won’t hurt your grade. We suggest trying to do as many projects as possible so that you can keep up with the material. The projects are much less stressful if they aren’t done at the last minute, and it is possible that our systems will be stressed if you wait until Friday night causing unexpected behavior and long wait times. Try to start your projects on or before Monday each week to leave yourself time to ask questions.

In this class grades reflect your achievement throughout the semester in the various course components listed above. Your grades will be maintained in Brightspace. This course will follow the 90-80-70-60 grading scale for A, B, C, D cut-offs. If you earn a 90.000 in the class, for example, that is a solid A. /- grades will be given at the instructor's discretion below these cut-offs. If you earn an 89.11 in the class, for example, this may be an A- or a B.

We generally do NOT accept late work. For the projects, we count only your best 10 out of 14, so that gives you a lot of flexibility. We need to be able to post answer keys for the rest of the class in a timely manner, and we can’t do this if we are waiting for other students to turn their work in.

If you must miss class at any point in time during the semester, please reach out to me via email so that we can communicate about how you can maintain your academic progress. If you find yourself too sick to progress in the course, notify your adviser and notify me via email or Brightspace. We will make arrangements based on your particular situation. Please note the Protect Purdue fall 2022 expectations announced on the Protect Purdue website.

You are expected to behave in a way that promotes a welcoming, inclusive, productive learning environment. You need to be prepared for your individual and group work each week, and you need to include everybody in your group in any discussions. Respond promptly to all communications and show up for any appointments that are scheduled. If your group is having trouble working well together, try hard to talk through the difficulties—​this is an important skill to have for future professional experiences. If you are still having difficulties, ask The Data Mine staff to meet with your group.

Academic integrity is one of the highest values that Purdue University holds. Individuals are encouraged to alert university officials to potential breaches of this value by either emailing or by calling 765-494-8778. While information may be submitted anonymously, the more information that is submitted provides the greatest opportunity for the university to investigate the concern.

In TDM 10200/20200/30200/40200/50100, we encourage students to work together. However, there is a difference between good collaboration and academic misconduct. We expect you to read over this list, and you will be held responsible for violating these rules. We are serious about protecting the hard-working students in this course. We want a grade for The Data Mine seminar to have value for everyone and to represent what you truly know. We may punish both the student who cheats and the student who allows or enables another student to cheat. Punishment could include receiving a 0 on a project, receiving an F for the course, and incidents of academic misconduct reported to the Office of The Dean of Students.

Good Collaboration:

Academic Misconduct:

The Purdue Honor Pledge "As a boilermaker pursuing academic excellence, I pledge to be honest and true in all that I do. Accountable together - we are Purdue"

Please refer to the student guide for academic integrity for more details.

Purdue’s Copyrighted Materials Policy:

Among the materials that may be protected by copyright law are the lectures, notes, and other material presented in class or as part of the course. Always assume the materials presented by an instructor are protected by copyright unless the instructor has stated otherwise. Students enrolled in, and authorized visitors to, Purdue University courses are permitted to take notes, which they may use for individual/group study or for other non-commercial purposes reasonably arising from enrollment in the course or the University generally. Notes taken in class are, however, generally considered to be "derivative works" of the instructor’s presentations and materials, and they are thus subject to the instructor’s copyright in such presentations and materials. No individual is permitted to sell or otherwise barter notes, either to other students or to any commercial concern, for a course without the express written permission of the course instructor. To obtain permission to sell or barter notes, the individual wishing to sell or barter the notes must be registered in the course or must be an approved visitor to the class. Course instructors may choose to grant or not grant such permission at their own discretion, and may require a review of the notes prior to their being sold or bartered. If they do grant such permission, they may revoke it at any time, if they so choose.

Purdue University is committed to maintaining a community which recognizes and values the inherent worth and dignity of every person; fosters tolerance, sensitivity, understanding, and mutual respect among its members; and encourages each individual to strive to reach his or her own potential. In pursuit of its goal of academic excellence, the University seeks to develop and nurture diversity. The University believes that diversity among its many members strengthens the institution, stimulates creativity, promotes the exchange of ideas, and enriches campus life. Link to Purdue’s nondiscrimination policy statement.

Purdue University strives to make learning experiences as accessible as possible. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on disability, you are welcome to let me know so that we can discuss options. You are also encouraged to contact the Disability Resource Center at: [email protected] or by phone: 765-494-1247.

If you have been certified by the Office of the Dean of Students as someone needing a course adaptation or accommodation because of a disability OR if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please contact The Data Mine staff during the first week of classes. We are happy to help you.

Purdue University is committed to providing a safe and secure campus environment for members of the university community. Purdue strives to create an educational environment for students and a work environment for employees that promote educational and career goals. Violent Behavior impedes such goals. Therefore, Violent Behavior is prohibited in or on any University Facility or while participating in any university activity. See the University’s full violent behavior policy for more detail.

In our discussions, structured and unstructured, we will explore a variety of challenging issues, which can help us enhance our understanding of different experiences and perspectives. This can be challenging, but in overcoming these challenges we find the greatest rewards. While we will design guidelines as a group, everyone should remember the following points:

Any student who faces challenges securing their food or housing and believes this may affect their performance in the course is urged to contact the Dean of Students for support. There is no appointment needed and Student Support Services is available to serve students from 8:00 - 5:00, Monday through Friday. The ACE Campus Food Pantry is open to the entire Purdue community).

Considering the significant disruptions caused by the current global crisis as it related to COVID-19, students may submit requests for emergency assistance from the Critical Needs Fund.

During the last two weeks of the semester, you will be provided with an opportunity to give anonymous feedback on this course and your instructor. Purdue uses an online course evaluation system. You will receive an official email from evaluation administrators with a link to the online evaluation site. You will have up to 10 days to complete this evaluation. Your participation is an integral part of this course, and your feedback is vital to improving education at Purdue University. I strongly urge you to participate in the evaluation system.

You may email feedback to us anytime at [email protected]. We take feedback from our students seriously, as we want to create the best learning experience for you!

Any student who has substantial reason to believe that another person is threatening the safety of others by not complying with Protect Purdue protocols is encouraged to report the behavior to and discuss the next steps with their instructor. Students also have the option of reporting the behavior to the Office of the Student Rights and Responsibilities. See also Purdue University Bill of Student Rights and the Violent Behavior Policy under University Resources in Brightspace.

In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. Here are ways to get information about changes in this course:

Students with extended illnesses should contact their instructor as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made for keeping up with the course. Extended absences/illnesses/emergencies should also go through the Office of the Dean of Students.

This syllabus is subject to change. Changes will be made by an announcement in Brightspace and the corresponding course content will be updated.